<http://www.canoe.ca/JamTelevisionGraphics/storymark.gif> It was enough to make Matt Groening yelp 'Doh!'

Last year, after an interviewer asked The Simpsons creator how long his animated juggernaut could go on, it was reported around the world that Homer was about to scarf down his last doughnut.

"All I said was we're closer to the end than the beginning and since we started in 1987, I didn't think we'd be on the air in 2030 or whatever. That's all I meant," Groening tells the Sun.

"But it looks like we're going to be on forever. That's my new line."

The same isn't true for his other cartoon comedy, the space-age Futurama, which never took off like its earthbound big brother.

Discussing the DVD of Futurama's first season, Groening confirms that, while Fox still has a number of episodes in the bank, production has halted and the cast and crew have moved on.

'OUT OF THEIR MINDS'

For that, Groening squarely blames Fox.

"The people at Fox didn't ever support the show and it wasn't to their taste and, in my opinion, they're out of their minds.

"But they don't like The Simpsons either. The idea of a TV show that they haven't gotten their greasy fingers all over creatively drives them nuts. That's why almost everything else is so lousy. The groundbreaking shows, the ones that cause the most intense reaction, are not the result of too many cooks. It's a strong, creator-driven vision.

"They just fired the guy who created The Bernie Mac Show. I'm sure that show is getting much, much better now. The fans loved (Futurama), but they couldn't find it. It never got promoted. The fans delivered a petition with 130,000 signatures and there was no reaction from Fox.

"We won the Emmy for best animated show a few months ago and I didn't even get a begrudging phone call from anyone at Fox. That's a dark company that they can't even make a fake phone call."

And as any Simpsons fan knows, Groening and his writers relish the chance to mock the once-fledgling fourth network.

"I love the strength of The Simpsons -- that we can get away with so much. They don't like it. We took jabs at Fox News and we were told not to, so we decided to do it more."

Certainly, Fox is in no position to threaten the series, which remains one of its most popular hits and has spawned a merchandising empire. Not bad for a series that was conceived in the late '80s when James L. Brooks, who was producing The Tracey Ullman Show, hired Groening to create animated shorts for Ullman's show.

After 48 shorts, The Simpsons went solo and became an instant sensation.

Many of the early episodes were penned by Groening and co-producer Sam Simon and, unlike many creators who abandon ship after the first few years, Groening remains very much involved with The Simpsons on a daily basis -- whether it's tinkering on toys, games and DVDS, or reading over scripts and giving input.

The show's staff writers include several Canadians, including Joel Cohen, who hails from Calgary.

"Canadians are funny," Groening says. "It's surprising. Listen, my ancestors are from Norway, Russia and Holland -- not areas of the world you associate with knee-slapping comedy."

With The Simpsons recently renewed for at least two more seasons, it's set to become the longest running comedy in television history.

Beyond the small screen, there's also the much-rumoured Simpsons feature film, which Groening confirms he's working on. "We're talking about doing it. We just want to make sure, if we do, it doesn't follow in the dismal footsteps of other currently-running TV shows turned into movies. I can only think of one that worked and that was South Park," he says.

"You want to honour the fans of the show, but you want to give them a little more. With the TV show, every week it's like a little movie. There are certainly enough incidents to fill a regular movie comedy. Whether people could stand it for an hour and a half, I don't know."[/i]

Plus the fact that fox didn't even want to know about the Emmy. Indicates Futurama's treatment really is fox's revenge for Matt telling them to piss off about The Simpsons, but while they couldn't punish The Simpsons, since that would be suicide for them, they can get back at him another way by going out of their way to be sure nothing else he attempts gets off the ground and to the stage where it's untouchable by their twee little minds.

Originally posted by Grim:yeah its just matt confirming that fox didnt like the show,

what was interesting was the confirmation of no response from fox on the petition

Lrrr: "FOX's behavior towards Futurama confuses and infuriates me!"

I think Matt made one thing very clear. It doesn't help to appeal to FOX to keep Futurama running, because they just don't like the show. But they do not really seem to like the Simpsons either, but they can't kill it because it has grown to big. Also they do make a lot of money with the episodes and the related merchandise.

But what I'm unable to understand is, why they do not simply put an end to it (Futurama), by showing the remaining episodes and then annoucing the end of the show. Instead they keep their heads down.I can't think of any other show, that got the kind of treatment that Futurama has got.

It's great that he makes fun of Fox and gets away with it... Gotta be able to push your weight around.I can envision a simpsons episode with a lot of futurama stuff in the background... or foreground...

No, you see, to say that something is "cult" is to actually show it in good favour and with a undeniable following. The writer who wrote this has since been fired for this mistake, and they haven't bothered to replace him.

Originally posted by Baddblood:It's great that he makes fun of Fox and gets away with it... Gotta be able to push your weight around.I can envision a simpsons episode with a lot of futurama stuff in the background... or foreground...

Originally posted by Gocad:But what I'm unable to understand is, why they do not simply put an end to it (Futurama), by showing the remaining episodes and then annoucing the end of the show. Instead they keep their heads down.I can't think of any other show, that got the kind of treatment that Futurama has got.

That's a question I'm starting to re-think myself. In several other posts I have given reasons all based on the theory that a television network does not do anything based on "spite", rather, there is some kind of money motive. Groening's comments about not even getting a fake phone call after the Emmy makes me wonder if there isn't a little spite at work after all.

But - here is another "why they are holding episodes back" theory I just came up with that seems plausible as well. The Series 1 DVDs come out in a week, and FOX has a big financial stake in them. They have done really well in Europe and are showing strong pre-order numbers on Amazon.com.

Series 2 is also out and popular in Europe and Series 3 will be out in a couple of months in Europe as well. One can only assume that Series 4 (the final one) will be out in Europe within a year.

By holding back Episodes, they can use them to keep the series fresh in people's minds until all of the DVD sets have been released. If they dropped Futurama in May, how would they promote Futurama Series 2-4, especially for U.S. fans? Yes *we* would buy them, but they want to make sure they sell as many sets as possible, even to the casual fans.

By showing a sixth season in the doomed Sunday 7/6 time slot (which would be bad for anything they showed there with all of the sports preemptions), they can keep us fans talking for another year, giving them time to release at least two more DVD sets while the show is still on (more or less).

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